Elegant Themes Blog

Stay up to date with our most recent news and updates

Kicking Off The New Year With A Review Of Elegant Themes In 2013

Twenty thirteen has been an exciting year for Elegant Themes. We produced new themes that we are extremely proud of, and we have built a community that we extremely fond of. We grew our team to 23 dedicated designers, developers and tech support specialists. Our customer base has grown too, and with it we have learned from the challenges that came with it. We made tough decisions about our theme development timeline, and with a razor-sharp focus we created the best theme in our collection.

We Reached 200,000 Members

This year we reached one of our biggest milestones as we surpassed the 200,000 customer mark. To know that we have provided a useful service to such a large amount of people makes me ecstatic. As our community grows, so does the importance of maintaining it. This millstone has re-cemented our appreciation for the importance of community, and many of our goals for 2013 were based around this not-so-new-found understanding.

A New Designer Joined The Team

For this first time since the company’s inception, Elegant Themes hired a new designer to work beside myself and our core developers Yuriy and Ann, in the creation of new themes. This has lead to a new collaboration of ideas and styles, and has also given us the time to sharpen our focus on the smallest of design details. Working with Kenny has been a pleasure, and our first collaborative work, Divi, is perhaps the best theme our team has ever created.

Connecting With Our Customers In New Ways

Understanding and connecting with our customers in new ways is a company goal that has been more and more and the forefront of our thoughts. We focused a lot on blogging this year, and with it we engaged our community through various customer surveys, competitions and spotlights. The Customer Showcase Competition was one of my personal favorite events, as it lead the discovery of countless and inspiring uses of our themes. If you haven’t checked out our Customer Showcase page, you are missing out! We also learned a lot from the 2013 Elegant Themes Survey, which is the first of what will now be a yearly event that will help us stay in touch with the needs of our customers. It’s this very survey that informed our decisions during the creation of our most recent theme.

Reducing Friction and Relieving Headaches

Towards the end of the year, we took a break from theme production to focus on user experience problems. In fixing a few relatively minor issues, we can greatly reduce the overall frustration of our user base. Our first endeavor was the creation and implementation of our Elegant Updater Plugin, which facilitates automatic dashboard updates for all of our products.

Our second project was to re-vamp our members-area login system to fix frequent login problems and session timeout issues that occurred with certain customers. In other words, no one should have problems staying logged into our support forum for long periods of time anymore. This was an annoying bug that took us too long to fix, and I apologize for that.

A Sharpened Focus On Customer Satisfaction

The larger our customer base grows, the more challenging it is to understand and address the concerns the community. This year, we greatly enhanced our support system and revamped our internal support policies to help ensure that our support team can improve the way they interact with customers. Behind the scenes, the way that moderators handle tickets collaboratively is now much more effective. We also introduced our Customer Satisfaction system, which allows customers to rate their experience with each ticket. With each negative response, we learn more about how we can do better.

Through the processes of hiring new support technicians, improving our support system back-end, updating our internal support policies and introducing our customer satisfaction ratings system, we are currently average 99% satisfaction for the past week. Even though we have made great progress, there is still much room for improvement in this area, and we will continue to tackle these new challenges in the coming year.

Divi, Our Most Powerful Theme Yet

For the first time, we decided to purposefully prolong our theme development timeline to give extra focus to a single theme. We spent 4 months building Divi when it usually takes us 1 month to finish a theme. Sometimes it is important to take risks, or you risk losing your ability to innovate. Divi is the start of something great, and I can’t wait to keep working on this theme in 2014.

By Nick Roach

I am the founder and lead designer at Elegant Themes. When I'm not hard at work on new themes, I enjoy writing an article or two on our blog!

87 Comments

Hi. Nice to hear you are having so much success! We use Elegant Themes and are currently using the Divi theme for our site at http://www.tips4blogging.co.uk. I have to say I have never used a theme so flexible and creative. However I also have a couple of ideas to further develop this theme. Please feel free to email me to discuss further and check out our website. Wishing you even more success in 2014.

Awesome year indeed I love that ET is very intentional about listening to your customers and making adjustments and enhancements accordingly. You guys are great. Keep up the great work. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2014!

I’ve been using ET since 2009 and couldn’t be happier with “All of the Above”. Themes, Plugins, and support are all top notch. 200K customers truly speak volumes for what people think about ET. I’m excited to see what great things continue to evolve and develop from you. Thanks much! -myArizona Designs

You guys rock at Elegant Themes! Thank you for making the best themes. I agree that Divi is the most flexible so far. I was able to redo my sister and brother-in-law’s legal website using it for a Christmas present! http://jayganderson.com/ It came out great and was very easy to work with. I like how your themes vary, but have very consistent back-end configurations. I look forward to using Dovi on future projects in 2014.
Peace,
Jamie

I have just finished four new Divi websites and I can’t say enough about the elegant look and feel of the websites. I really feel that Divi will make more much more competitive and profitable in 2014. Our newest promotional email will be going out next week and we’ll feature these four new sites. Can’t wait to hear the responses.

I like the layout aspects of Divi, but I don’t like having to do so much customization of small things such as header sizing and colors and page font sizes etc. with custom css. This takes so much time away from the creative process.

I wish in the future you would include some of the basic customizations as part of the theme package. I would be willing to pay more for those kinds of features as I think others would.

Divi is what brought me back as an ET customer. I’m a copywriter, not a techie at all. But I spent 10 days redesigning my site from the ground up–the graphics, the copy, everything–and I relaunched my site yesterday. (Just in time for the New Year, which had been my goal.)

And I gotta say I couldn’t be more thrilled! My website looks gorgeous. Modern and clean.

It’s the first time I’ve worked with a theme where things worked exactly the way I expected them too.

There are a few things I ended up having to go to the support forums to figure out how to fix. But with the exception of one thing–the image transitions on the blurbs are annoying–I’ve got the site looking and behaving exactly the way I want it to. Honestly, I couldn’t be happier.

Have you built your own websites previously? I’m thinking of purchasing elegant themes, but am wondering if it’s something I will be able to figure out for myself or if I’m going to have to hire out to get my site built. Thanks in advance for your feedback!! – Kelli

Thank you so much for DIVI! You released it just as we were preparing to build a new website and decided to jump right in and use DIVI. (take a look- http://ballycottonpress.com/) We love the flexibility and so many options to customize each new site we build going forward without the risk of everything looking too much the same. We have only been building websites for a little over a year and Elegant Themes has most definitely given us the tools to create sites we are proud of and that make our clients happy. Keep up the great work! (ps- I enjoy seeing other developers’ work using your themes, there is a lot of talent out there!)

I love what you guys have developed here in terms of a community and the theme templates, etc. What I am about to add to this post should in no way take away from the awesomeness of what you do here, but I contacted you regarding this issue before and no one responded: You have many misspellings and mistakes on your website and in your posts (such as these blog posts). PLEASE don’t take offense. I am an editor and writer first and foremost and I feel strongly that proofreading what is posted on a business’ website/blog is really important, because it’s part of your reputation. I’d be willing to have some dialog with you about perhaps offering some proofreading services in exchange for a lifetime membership? (For example within the post: “For this (‘this’ should be ‘the’) first time since the company’s inception… Another example within this post: “Understanding and connecting with our customers in new ways is a company goal that has been more and more and (‘and’ should be ‘in’) the forefront of our thoughts.

Your website has actual misspellings and mistakes, too. Again, PLEASE don’t be insulted – I just didn’t get a response to my email to you so I thought I would try the public forum. Blog posts are one thing, as they tend to be more casual, but your website should not contain misspellings and mistakes, don’t you agree?

I have already paid for a one-year membership with Elegant Themes through November of next year, so I AM already a member.

I’m basically offering to proofread your website (and whatever else you want me to do along those lines) in exchange for a lifetime membership…we could possibly form an alliance?

I took myself out of the career race to raise three kids. Eight years later it is time to jump back in. I needed a website. I found elegant themes after looking at a dozen youtube wordpress tutorials and I have started using the Divi theme. It is brilliant! I have had some problems and every one has been answered by the awesome elegant themes support staff. I couldn’t be happier with my elegant themes experience. I am a writer, editor, graphic designer…. and with a theme this beautiful and easy, perhaps I will offer website development….. Thanks so much for a first-time wonderful experience. Keep up the great work in 2014. Andi.

I love it! This is my first year with ET and I have already used several of the themes on my web projects and it just keeps getting more fun with each template. I cant wait to try Divi on my next project. Thanks for the updates!

I am just wrapping up a project I started in November using the Aggregate theme. I loved the flexibility. And once again I learned so much from the ET support team while getting their help on this project. They were amazing as usual! I was able to do everything I wanted and more. Not only are the themes great, but in my opinion, the best part of getting a membership so far has been getting immediate access to some of the best designers and developers out there to help me on my projects.

Anyways, I am so excited about my latest project using the Aggregate theme, I cant contain it any longer. It goes live next week but here is a sneak peek at the project. Great for Zombie fans

Since there isn’t an update for the Divi theme, but we just have to install the new version, won’t that erase the data and formatting of the pages?? I don’t want to lose all the work we’ve done. Let me know.

I came back to ET after a couple of years away because I couldn’t find anything that was up to my vision of my site. I got to play with the new themes, and have enjoyed being able to “try on” new themes. My only complaint is being logged off if I don’t do anything for 30 seconds.

Been with Elegant Themes for two years. No one believes me that I did not design my websites. When I tell them I follow the designer’s lead, and it is an Elegant Theme, they still don’t get it. I just refer them to Elegant Themes.

As a result I have too many websites because Elegant Themes makes the whole experience worthwhile. There was a time when the service was…that was then, but now it is awesome!

Each Theme I have worked in: Evolution, Chameleon, Glider, Vertex all have something within them that works.

The Divi Theme is outstanding to me it is the mark of real progress. When you are already good and improve even further, you excel.

Nick Roach is one talented individual with a rare quality – he actually cares about your experience when you use an Elegant Theme.

The guys who work in the forum are helpful as well as knowledgeable.
Way to go Elegant Themes!
Thanks for continued good service.
Of course I have to upgrade my one site to the Divi Theme!

I have been building websites for my clients for 6 months but have only just joined Elegant Themes in December. I have updated my own website on the Divi theme. It has really given me the power to build and style wordpress websites better and quicker than ever before. The other resources are brilliant to so a big thanks from us and keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing what your team come up with in 2014

I’ve been happy with Elegant Themes since I joined in Jan of 2013. You BET I’m renewing! I’m using three different themes right now on three different sites — Memoir (which I plan to move to Divi), Quadro, and Chameleon.

I believe ET has by far the BEST value for the price and support is extremely good. Can’t wait to see what you guys do in 2014!!!

A millions thanks to ET! I went for an interview and I was told to layout a site built with dreamweaver. Then I asked the overall developer if I can use WordPress he said yes. I was given just an hour and do you know what? I used Divi to layout the site and the guy was impressed looking at the effects and transitions and referred me to the CEO to offer me the job. I am so grateful Nick and also thanking automattic and all creative WordPress developers outta there.

I became a member of ET back a couple years ago because I always admired the themes on here. However I never really worked with any of the themes up until the release of Divi.

Every year (and sometimes twice a year) when I have the time- I try to rework my personal site to keep those who visit interested. After some recommendations from clients and customers; I pooled together their ideas and started to play around with Divi. I really enjoyed the outcome and decided I would continue working with it even though it was really out of my comfort zone. My new look is entirely different than my usual and I am very happy with it. I could never find something that truly described all the things I did- up until now. I had always felt funny sharing my sites as this was my very first one I worked with using an ET framework; however I feel it is the start of something truly great- and I look forward to the future of ET. Especially Divi. I never thought I would like a pagebuilder as I have always worked with shortcodes; but it seems with Divi- a lot is possible! Now that I have my new site up; I have received some great feedback and even new clients which I will be using some ET on. I really need to take the time though to make more of my own icons (I have to admit the ET freebies work great!).

So I now have a new look for the new 2014 year thanks to ET! Keep up the great work everyone. Thank you for your great themes and resources! I was going to ask this prior in the forums- but I often post resource links for students/ young designers/ artists in my blog and would love to post a link to ET if that is permitted. I know a lot of people starting out and wanting to go into web and think ET would be perfect for them to get started on!

That’s good news on repairing the login mechanism. It’s been a major source of frustration for far too long.

I can also say that support response has been much quicker in the past month or so than I had enjoyed in the past. Good job.

That said, I’ve been trying to get a post replied to on the customization board for about a week, and nobody has replied except another customer who echoed the desire for the same feature. I reposted and still nothing from support.

One thing that is missing is a marketplace. Minor customizations should be offered for free, but for larger jobs ET should add a list of qualified designers who can do them. Sometimes it’s just easier and faster to pay for things than to wait on replies that may never come

Divi has now brought ET into the same category of some of the best WP themes available, and it’ll be exciting to see how ET supports it from here on out.

I also think that Divi has opened the door to child themes. While I’m sure that many would be free, there are plenty of ET users with the capability to design these at a level that would justify a small payment.

I would try clearing cookies and cache, just in case your browser is serving you the old login form.

If that doesn’t work, you can try using a different browser or adjusting your browser settings. We have never encountered any issues when using default settings for Chrome, FireFox and Safari. You can also try using this alternate login form:

It is nice to know that you guys worked 4 months for developing divi, but its a portfolio theme, and I think magazine themes are trending now. I hope next times you guys are gonna release a awesome magazine theme.

I’d like a theme that was more flexible for different types of logos. Most of the themes utilize small horizontally designed logos. The Divi theme is a very nice overall. But the tiny logo space made it unusable for my client.

Let me begin by saying that 2013 was an elegant year for me – at least in regards to WordPress themes. I had used various styles, layouts, etc. of different free themes but none made me say “WOW, I am satisfied.” Then, by accident or by fate, I discovered Elegant Themes last April/May. I tried various themes – amazed to receive ALL themes for one flat fee – and settled on one-or-two favorites.

Along came Divi at year’s end. Now, without a doubt, I can say with 100% confidence in my statement that “WOW, I am satisfied.”

You’ve made me into a loyal customer but, more importantly, I’ve become a fan and I can’t wait to see what you bring in 2014!

Hi, am planning to purchase one of the elegant themes Nova / Deep Focus. However, before proceeding I wanted to clarify if i could use the theme on multiple domains? Like I have a main Group website and 4 child companies. Can use the same theme with different customization on each site so that all the websites resemble each other yet look different? Pls help me, am trying to contact their support forum but no response from them.